Ampio Pharmaceuticals announced today it has raised net proceeds of $63.3 million following the completion of an underwritten public offering.
Ampio (NYSE: [[ticker:AMPE]]), which is based in Greenwood Village, CO, focuses on developing therapies for inflammatory conditions. Its two most advanced drug candidates are aspartyl-alanyl diketopiperazine (Ampion), which could be used to treat osteoarthritis of the knee, and a reformulation of the generic oral steroid danazol (Optina), a potential treatment for diabetic macular edema, which affects the eye.
Ampion, the osteoarthritis drug, is in a Phase III final pivotal clinical trial, and Ampio is enrolling patients for a Phase IIb trial for Optina.
The company said in a prior media release that it will use the money for general corporate purposes and to continue clinical trials of Ampion and Optina.
Ampio shares were trading in the mid $7 range Wednesday morning, giving the company a market capitalization of around $313 million. The company reported a net loss of $24.5 million in 2013 and has lost $63.5 million over the past five years. Ampio said in its prospectus it has not received or expects to receive commercialization revenue in the near term.
Ampio’s stock has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2013. Prior to that, it traded on the NASDAQ for two years. It originally traded on the OTC Bulletin Board for about a year after the company reincorporated as Ampio Pharmaceuticals in 2010. It had previously been DMI Life Sciences, which was formed in 2008.
The company sold 9,775,000 shares of common stock in the offering. That includes 1,275,000 shares of common stock purchased by the underwriters, Citigroup Global Markets and Jefferies, which were joint book-running managers for the deal. Gross proceeds of the sale were about $68 million.
